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Disney's Aladdin the Musical extends into 2017

Friday, 27 May, 2016

The London transfer of the Tony-nominated Disney musical Aladdin has extended its booking period at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End to 11 February 2017. The production begins preview performances this evening, Friday 27 May 2016, and has an official opening on 15 June 2016. It was initially booking to 1 October 2016.

The West End production comes direct from Broadway, which has been delighting audiences in New York for over two years. Since originally playing in Seattle and Toronto, the stage adaptation of the hit Disney 1992 animated classic brings together a magical team of Disney Theatricals experts who have overseen the previous London productions of Mary Poppins, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.

Featuring a score of well known classic Disney songs from the master of music Alan Menken, the musical features hits such as "Friend Like Me", "Arabian Nights", "Prince Ali" and of course, the Oscar-winning "A Whole New World". Brought together with fresh new arrangements, the stage musical includes a number of new songs written specifically for the production.

Directed by Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw, who is currently represented in the West End with hit musical The Book of Mormon, the production features spectacular dance routines, breath-taking visual effects and a hilarious book, featuring your favourite characters from the film alongside a whole host of additional material. The Broadway production quickly became known for its production numbers, with the epic staging of "Friend Like Me" regularly receiving mid-show standing ovations.

Disney's Aladdin is loosely based on a story that featured in '1001 Arabian Nights' and follows an impoverished 'street rat' Aladdin who tries to get through life by stealing and avoiding the law. In the Sultan's Palace, the beautiful Princess Jasmine is being forced to pick a suitor to marry, and both her and her father are under the influence of the evil Vizier Jafar. As Jafar plots to take over Agrabah and become Sultan himself, he enlists the help of Aladdin to retrieve the magic lamp from the Cave of Wonders, but as Aladdin finds himself trapped, he rubs the lamp and is greeted by a magical Genie who offers to grant him three wishes.

The stage adaptation replaces the animal characters from the film with humans, giving both Aladdin and Jasmine a trio of friends who add to the drama and help in the final battle against Jafar. The show features a mixture of low comedy, physical humour and impressive fight sequences to bring to life all aspects of the memorable story, and allows audiences to see the familiar tale through fresh eyes.

The original Broadway production was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best New Musical. It won the award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical, rewarding the original Genie James Monroe Iglehart for his incredible performance in the iconic role. In London, the role will be taken by Trevor Dion Nicholas who has experience bringing down the house having performed the role multiple times in New York.

We recently interviewed the leading cast members from the West End production. Check out what Dean John-Wilson, Jade Ewen and Trevor Dion Nicholas had to say about the show here.